Sony Prepares Playstation Tablet

A notable omission at this year's Mobile World Congress was a tablet offering from Sony, one of the few major companies that have yet to vie for Apple's tablet crown.

According to Engadget, however, Sony is looking to fill its tablet hole with a uniquely-shaped device, code-named S1. Shaped like a magazine folded backward, the S2's wrap design is aimed at making the task of holding the device less taxing over long periods. This, according to Engadget's source, ultimately makes the device feel lighter than the iPad, even though the devices are roughly the same weight.

Sony's tablet will also be Playstation Certified, Engadget says, giving the device not only robust multimedia capabilities, but the ability to play Playstation games as well. In fact the tablet is set to be pre-loaded with a selection of PS One games.

Sony Ericsson recently unveiled similar functionality with the Xperia Play, a Playstation-Phone hybrid equipped with a control pad support for downloadable Playstation titles.

Engadget prices the Sony tablet at $599, which has an expected release date of Sept. 2011. The device would feature a pair of cameras and be running Google Android 3.0.

At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Sony deputy president Kunimasa Suzuki said it was not Sony's goal to topple Apple with its own tablet. [In the tablet market] we'd really like to take the number two position in a year, he said.

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